Financial software house NMW Computers Plc has suffered a shaky year following the downturn in the stock market and, in response, has cut its overheads by one third, disposed of its 49% shareholding in loss making company Broker Services Ltd to the majority shareholder Barclays de Zoete Wedd Holdings for a nominal figure, and is focussing its attention on new market sectors. Dependency on the securities industry cost NMW a 34.6% fall in turnover and a pre-tax loss of UKP1.3m this year, and this is not a mistake the company intends to repeat. To this end NMW has launched its contingency stand-by service for large computer users called Fortress, as well as growing its nationwide X25 packet-switched network and in-house market-making systems. Although the stock market has seen increased trading since the beginning of the year, NMW is understandably fighting shy of tying itself too closely to it, but, along with its diversification, it has announced a new automatic routing system called Echo, and says it is looking forward cautiously to further government privatisations leading to a new upturn in business on the market.
